Month: August 2016

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How’s Your Day Going?

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“Praise be to His glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with His glory.” – Psalm 72:19

Early one morning I asked God, “How is Your day going?” Here’s what I thought He might be saying:

“Oh, Bev, I am so sad at the unrest on Earth. These problems (killings, racial conflict, riots, wars, poverty, deceit, sickness, death) are all a result of generations of sinfulness. The centuries-long threads of mistakes, unforgiveness, and attitudes are weaving together a tapestry that becomes darker and uglier as time goes by. Someday I will untangle it all and recreate the picture as it was meant to be, but not yet.

“In other ways, it’s a great day. The sun is shining, the rivers are flowing, the oceans are waving, and trees are growing. And that’s only the Earth. There is a huge universe you don’t even know of. I can’t tell you about it in ways you would understand, so someday I will show it to you!”

Did you ever wonder how God’s day is going? It’s OK to ask Him. He loves to share His heart with us Earthlings!

“If we cooperate with Him in loving obedience, God will manifest Himself to us, and that manifestation will be the difference between a nominal Christian life and a life radiant with the light of His face.” – A. W. Tozer

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Just What I Needed to Hear

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“Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord.” – Psalm 31:24

God is always ready to talk to us. Sometimes He just has to wait until we slow down enough to listen. Then He whispers to our hearts words especially suited for whatever situation we face. I have found that, most often, His messages are variations of one of these:

• I love you.
• I will never leave you.
• Don’t be afraid.

Which do you need today? To know how much He loves you? To be secure in His faithfulness? Or to experience the peace that comes by trusting Him?

You can start the conversation by praying with honesty and sincerity about your need. You could even ask Him to awaken your heart to be ready to hear what He wants to say in response. Then just wait in quietness. His message will be perfect to meet what the ancients called your “pressing necessity”. He always knows just what we need to hear. Sh-h-h. Listen.

“He hath never failed thee yet.
Never will His love forget.
O fret not thyself nor let
Thy heart be troubled,
Neither let it be afraid.” 

 – Amy Carmichael

 

 

 

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Just an Ordinary Day?

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“He has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” -Ecclesiastes 3:11

It is impossible for us to have an ordinary day. God has plans for us and for the people around us. He is at work whether we see it or not. Remember Abraham? He welcomed three strangers into his tent and then found out that two were angels and one was Jesus Himself! They were presenting themselves, at least at first, as ordinary travelers. But they were anything but ordinary.

In fact, C. S. Lewis said, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. . .” He goes on to explain that we see only the surface of people.  If we could actually see their eternal natures, Lewis says we would be tempted either to worship them or run from them. There is much more to every human being than we can possibly imagine.

Because of that, there is unseen value in our moments and our days. We cannot understand the impact of each personal engagement or individual circumstance we will face today, but, in light of eternity, each has the possibility of being extraordinary in some unseen way.

Our encounters are a unique part of God’s plan for this world and the one to come. There are no ordinary people. There are no ordinary days. Let’s fully engage the one in front of us!

“Life would be easy if providential hours declared themselves, if they met us radiant and with uplifted look and crying ‘I am one of thy great hours’. But they never meet us in a guise like that – never betray their greatness by their bearing. We hear no sound of approaching footsteps. Thy footsteps are unknown.” – George Herbert Morris

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Change Me

“Be the penetrating light which illumines my intellect,

the gentle motion which attracts and directs my will,

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“. . . a longing fulfilled is like a tree of life.” – Proverbs 13:12

the supernatural power which gives energy to my body.

Complete in me Your work of sanctification and love. Make me

pure
transparent
simple
true
free
peaceful
gentle
calm
and burning with charity toward God and my neighbor.

Amen.”

This prayer (written by a woman known simply as Sr. Carmela of the Holy Spirit) touched me because it describes so much that I, too, want to pray.

Look at those words of peace, freedom, and calm, resulting, at the end, in loving God and others. Do they resonate with you, too? If so, I invite you to join with me in praying this borrowed plea often and sincerely. Only God can make the changes in us that we so desperately need.

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He’s First

Do you ever wish God would just write His will across the sky so you can understand it clearly? Something like that happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Actually, it wasn’t the sky He wrote on, it was a mountain.

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“My soul yearns for You in the night; in the morning, my spirit longs for You.” – Isaiah 26:9a

I got up, started the coffee in preparation for my early morning time with God, and began a conversation with Him as the coffee began to brew. As I waited, I looked out the kitchen window toward the mountains to the southwest. A prominent snowfield was visible on one of them and had melted into the shape of a giant “1”. I looked again thinking I must be seeing it wrong. But, no, it was really a “1”. God had written His will on the side of a mountain for me to see: He wants to be first in my life!

As I prayed, I realized He wants to be the first one I think of when I wake up in the morning, the first one I turn to when I need help, the first one I recognize when something good happens in my life, and the only one I ever worship.

The snowy “1” remained there for the rest of our stay in the mountains and was a many-times-a-day reminder of God’s perfect will for me – and for all of us who are His children. When we make Him first, we are less afraid, worried, and frustrated and more often filled with love, joy, and peace. It’s the best way to live!

“Every happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message.” ~Malcolm Muggeridge